Malfunctioning Marriage
by wirbil
Summary: Nasuada married Orrin. They had a child. Orrin got a mistress. Nasuada is trying to prevent her dragon from eating him. Not all men are the same. -NasuadaxMurtagh-


**Disclaimer**: Honestly I would really not want to own The Inheritance Series because of all that controversy between it and the Lord of the Rings. I'm sure you can tell which characters are mine, hopefully. XD

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Nasuada sighed as she walked through the hallways of the Surdanian castle.

_Why did you marry him in the first place?_ Esmeralda suddenly asked. The green dragon popped into her head. The feelings that she was radiating seemed irritated and protective. She wasn't feeling too fond of Orrin at the moment.

_Because the council members and everyone were just so, pushy! _

_It's not like you to break Nasuada._

Nasuada blocked Esmeralda from her mind. Her thoughts were horribly jumbled as is. She had just come back from a few months of training with the elves to find that the whole court was gossiping about how Orrin had gained a mistress in a young and single duchess. If she were honest with herself, she knew that this was bound to happen sooner or later. She had her suspicions about her consort before they had even married.

For the sake of political peace, they had done what had been expected of them. But had he ever truly loved her? Had she ever truly loved _him?_

They had always spent more time separate than together. They even had their own individual rooms. What did that say about their marriage in the first place?

Images flashed before her mind's eye.

_She was escaping from the dungeons of Galbortrix's castle with the help of Murtagh and Elena, Galbortrix's daughter by an elf. _

_A month within the castle but two weeks in the dungeons after she had been discovered by one of Galbortrix's black sorcerers. The days went by so quickly when she was trying to keep up the pretense of a visiting noble woman's daughter come to court Murtagh. Bitter irony. For the most part she was guised by an enchanted stone that gave her the image of a curvy woman with red hair and pale skin._

_The sorcerer had cornered her in his lab and had tried to cut out her kidney for selling in the black market. _

_The torture was nothing. She had been warned and she had been prepared. She would stand tall whether her hands and feet were chained or if she was to be deprived of food. Murtagh had visited her one night and healed some of her wounds. He came every other night and some nights, it was he who was bleeding even more than she. _

_Nasuada never asked why. _

_As she rode away in a corpse cart, she turned back and to see Murtagh watching. He raised a hand in fair well and turned, without looking back, walked into the castle. A hell for him as much as it was for her. She almost wished that he were with her in that cart filled with the dead just so the look of longing that had been on his face was no longer there. _

_She had returned to Surda to much rejoicing and was urged to seal the alliance between Surda and the Varden as quickly as possible. The final battle was bound to happen soon. She had held out for weeks. The torture of passive aggression was almost as bad as the sting of the chains being whipped across her back. _

_It was a day after her wedding when Murtagh stumbled into the courtyard, covered with blood and dust. Thorn didn't look much better. A baby was cooing softly in a basket that had been tied to Thorn's saddle and though she was covered in blood, she giggled when Murtagh brushed his hand over her head. A single saddlebag hung heavily next to the child. _

_No one had made a move to help him, even as he stood bleeding beside his dragon._

_A messenger boy had called her to the scene. She felt like her face had suddenly set itself into a mask and she couldn't take it off if she wanted too. Her feelings were completely frozen. _

_He had shoved the baby and the sack against her and whispered, "Laleh, Elena's child." Then he gestured to the parcel in his other arm, which seemed to be broken and croaked out "A dragon egg."_

_She had spent days next his bedside. She was quiet for the most part and held his hand even though she knew he didn't know she was there. He slept for day. _

_Then she had to choke out that she had married Orrin when he had finally woken up. She owed it to him. The words seem to stick in her throat and his face had begun to close up long before she ad managed the words. He had looked at her blankly, his face a perfect impenetrable mask but his eyes told her all that she needed to know. Of all the emotion she read, resignation was the most easily read. _

"_You deserve a good man like Orrin." He had said wryly giving her a smirk. The same smirk that she had seen on that cursed corpse cart. _

Not soon after that Esmeralda had hatched for her. They had fought the battle of the century against Galbatorix. It seemed so far away now that she was walking to confront her consort about his mistress.

_Good man, right._ Esmeralda's voice mockingly echoed through her head again._ He's nothing but a…_

_Esmeralda,_ Nasuada said in warning.

_Well he is and you know it._

_I agree but please._

_You know that old saying? "Easier said than done?" I doubt this will turn out like you expect it._

Hopefully better_._ Nasuada thought grimly and knocked loudly on the oak door.

"Hello?" Orrin said as he opened the door.

"I know you have a mistress Orrin." Nasuada said bluntly looking into his eyes.

"Don't tell me otherwise because I know."

"Ah. You're elf senses finally caught up with me."


End file.
